


Perspectives

by Simply_Isnt_On



Series: Torchwood Fic Week [1]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Crack, Gum - Freeform, office politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 14:05:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5377982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simply_Isnt_On/pseuds/Simply_Isnt_On
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all it takes is a new perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perspectives

**Author's Note:**

> Accidentally posted a day late due to extenuating circumstances, a.k.a. I am really good at procrastination.

When you start a new job, it’s generally accepted that you’ll get the shitty desk. The desk that no one wants. The day a desk is vacated, everyone switches around, and the shitty desk, underside gum and all, is left empty and waiting just for you. Maybe the desk wobbles; if you’re lucky, the only thing you inherit is the gum, and if you can keep from touching the underside of your desk, you never have to know about it.

Unfortunately, when you’re lying on your back underneath a piece of furniture, it’s kind of hard to miss the gum-chewed history which has just revealed itself to you.

“Ugh, disgusting.”

Torchwood wasn’t the best job. Lying to Rhys, odd hours, and almost no time off- not what people are looking for when they take a position. But Gwen found she didn’t mind that so much. Working for Torchwood was more exciting than any job she’d ever hoped to hold, and she was never bored. Some days, she couldn’t understand why she had taken it in the first place, but more often she couldn’t believe she’d ever done anything else.

As luck would have it, today was the first kind. It had started out on the wrong foot with a Weevil getting loose, and it had taken the four of them to contain it and get it back in its cage. The tussle had left Owen with a gash on his right arm, deep enough to need stitches and lidocaine and oh god, no one else in the Hub could even consider taking a needle to him without getting sick. So Gwen was left to play nurse, down to the leering looks and unprofessional comments from the patient. Even if Owen was on some pretty heavy anxiety medication at the moment, the experience left her feeling slimy even after she’d washed her hands several times and sent Owen to sleep it off in the lounge.

No day that began with a fight and continued to stitches was ever going to end well. An hour later Jack sent her to check out a reported alien sighting, which turned out to be a prank some teenagers had orchestrated to scare their younger siblings. By the time she got back with coffee, the rest of the team had discovered something new coming through the Rift and was on their way out, leaving Gwen to enjoy her coffee in peace.

Apparently, the universe had other plans, as the pterodactyl wasted no time in swooping down and swiping everything off her desk onto the floor, including her freshly warm coffee. And so Gwen found herself, a month into her job at Torchwood, on her back under her desk. A desk which, until today, she’d been genuinely pleased to have, as it was just a bit removed from the rest of the group and therefore a bit quieter. Obviously, there would be a drawback, and the day from hell cumulated in the discovery that the entire underside of her desk was covered in gum.

“Who the hell chews this much gum at work?” she sighed, carefully reaching for a handful of pens she was on her back to get. The coffee was already soaking into her shirt, and from her perspective, that was worse than being on her back under her desk. At least no one was here.

 “Oi, Gwen!”

“Bugger.” Suddenly Owen was leaning over her, grinning, wrapped arm strapped to his chest.

“Not sure you’re meant to get white shirts wet Miss Cooper,” he noted, eyeing her. Gwen groaned. This was truly the day from hell.


End file.
